Hannah Schmitz on being a woman in F1: 'Don't listen to everyone'

“It was difficult to be one of the first women to sit on the pit wall,'' says 38-year-old Hannah Schmitz. Hannah has been Red Bull Racing's chief strategy engineer since 2021 and has been with the team for almost 15 years. In an interview with femalesinmotorsport.com, Schmitz discusses her successes at Red Bull and how she deals with online hate.

The 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix is one of the British strategist's finest memories. When Bottas had to stop his car because he had hydraulic problems and Red Bull's pit wall momentarily panicked, Schmitz gave the decisive decision: ''I think we should pit,'' said Schmitz. “Usually, you know what you’re going to do in a Safety Car before it comes out. And that particular time, we had been talking about it, and no one had committed either way.” Thanks to Schmitz's decision, Verstappen went inside to pick up new soft tyres. That decision led to a victory for the Dutchman.

Podium honours

With a victory comes, of course, a podium ceremony, three drivers and an employee of the winning team. How could it be otherwise that Schmitz was sent onto the podium after that decision? “When you watch the podium, you think it’s quite a quick ceremony,” says Schmidt. “But actually standing there—trying to take in that you’re up there because of a decision you made… It was an incredible honour. It was an incredible feeling.”

Representing diversity

Schmitz is a strong advocate of diversity in sports. She believes it is important for women to be represented in the media to increase women's interest in sport. ''People are proud to show what they do and to help encourage women, young girls to stay in STEM.'' She continued: ''And there’s so many exciting careers for them… There are so many incredible women across motorsport. I’m really happy to help represent that.” 

'Everyone has an opinion'

After the 2022 GP of the Netherlands, outraged fans took to Twitter to spread conspiracy theories. With the sufferer being Hannah Schmitz.

“With social media, everyone’s going to have an opinion. You don’t have to listen to all of those. They’re not all right.” Hamilton, Verstappen and Scuderia Alpha Tauri condemned the accusations on Twitter.